Editor's Note

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a discussion on the Mighty Miramichi Community Forum where someone said how lucky she felt to be able to raise her family here on the river.

Do you ever hear something so often you don't really hear it anymore - the meaning and impact somehow get lost in the repetition?

I don't remember the precise moment it happened but somewhere along the way I tuned out to my good fortune at living on the Miramichi. Reading that discussion the other day, I tuned back in.

All the comments about good fortune didn't touch me. I saw nothing new; everybody knows how lucky we are. But an idea emerged that forced me to pause and think about what it means to live here.

Living on the Miramichi isn't easy.

It seems simple looking at it now. But the idea that living here requires an effort hasn't crossed my mind in quite a few years.

It would be much easier for me to advance in my work if I lived in Vancouver. It would be a lot easier for me to make more money if I lived in Toronto. It would be really easy to surround myself with artistic people if I lived in New York City.

I'm not saying living away is easy, as anyone who has ever done it knows. Read the essay this month called Misplaced Miramichier and you will see exactly how it feels to live away. Making a new life, away from your birth home and family, isn't easy. I know from experience.

Like most people I know, I've lived and worked away. I was one of those people who counted the days until high school graduation so I could get out of this hick town and into the real world.

I moved around, different jobs in different cities, until one day I decided I needed to make a life for myself here on the Miramichi. I knew it probably wouldn't be as easy to get ahead. There aren't as many job opportunities.

I knew I probably wouldn't be able to live in the same style for awhile, if ever again. Salaries are much lower here.

I knew living here wasn't going to be easy and yet I decided to move home regardless, no matter what the sacrifice.

There seem to be two types of Miramichiers - those who prefer to deal with homesickness while they get ahead and those who prefer having a hard time paying the bills while they're surrounded by their family.

Neither way is better than the other, but each of us have to find the way that suits us best.

I never forgot how hard it was to live away. I never forgot how much I missed simple things like King Cole Tea and home-made bread and molasses. I never forgot how much I missed things I took for granted growing up here like the smell of spring mud, the rustle of trees outside my window, and the sheer beauty of a river I saw almost everyday of my life.

I will never forget how hard it was to live away but I did forget that living here isn't easy. And by forgetting that, somehow the phrase "lucky to live on the Miramichi" lost all its power and meaning for me.

With all of the happenings in the world this past month, I should say I have never felt more fortunate to be alive, healthy and living on the Miramichi - I am so lucky!

But now that I've remembered what I gave up in order to be here, now that I've remembered living here isn't easy, I don't need the terrible state of the world to remind me of my good fortune.

Don't forget to read the rest of your Bread 'n Molasses!

Kellie - April, 2003